Steel pan music originated in the Caribbean but can now be heardall over the world.

Aubrey Bryan

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Aubrey Bryan

Aubrey describes steel pan music in London:

"I had a couple of calypso recordswhich I used to play every afternoon when I came in from work,just keeping in touch with home. But I was missing my pan, as pan was my thing. In London, Ladbroke Grove especially, the guys had pans, but out this way in Croydon, which people call the sticks, pans were unheard of."

"One night I heard some guys playing pan and I thought, this is nice! And then I gradually started to play pan again, and since then I've never looked back."

"I think people in the authorities felt that having a growing number of black children in the schools, it was a good idea to have steel bands in schools.But for me the idea was to develop the music for the host nation in order that they could appreciate that aspect of Caribbean culture. The white kids also wanted to play steel band - so it wasn't a colour thing, music is music, it transcends all races."

Playing the steel pan

Aubrey began playing steel pans as a teenager in Guyana.

Steel pans were developed in the mid-20th century in Trinidad.They were made by adapting paint pots, dustbins and oil drums.

Aubrey came to Croydon in 1964 and began to make his own steel pans. Each one takes 40 to 50 hours and requires specialist metalworking skills.Aubrey also teaches pan playing in local schools.

I Am Here

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I Am Here

This sound clip was created during the
I Am Here project. The group of 14-24
year olds selected objects close to their
heart that also said something about identity.

I Am Here is part of Stories of the World,
one of the major projects at the heart of the
London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

"Hi I'm Hannah. I'm 17 and I'm here at Croydon Museum today and I've picked an object that I would like to talk about and that object is the steel pan.

I was first attracted to the steel pan because it reminded me of how music is such a big part of people's identity, and living here in Croydon where there's so many different cultures and it's so diverse and I think it is inevitable that music is going to play a big part in everyday life and

there will be lots of different music influenced from all over the world.

Steel pan music originated from the Caribbean and that's where my family's from. So originally I was quite drawn to it.

Steel pan music is often played at carnivals and again I can relate to this because I have been to a few carnivals with my family andI just like the idea of how you know, this little bit of metal can bring lots of people together and it just reminds of good times of fun, just celebrating, I think music is a good way to bring people together.

I think to fully appreciate it you really need to hear steel pan music live and be in the middle of a carnival, to appreciate all the sounds, you can look at it but I think it's better to be

there and to hear it and then you can really understand what steel pan music is about."